Sigh… Saturday was long. Bryan went to help a gentleman from our ward, Brother Garstin, move out of his 3000+ sq ft home and was gone all day. I made the boys do some work around the house and out in the yard before they could go play with friends on the street and they were kinda bummed about having to actually do work. They sure gave me trouble for it at least. Reece also managed to have two of his only three potty accidents yesterday and ended up getting a bath after each one because he was just that gross. By 1:30, I was really missing Bryan and decided to go visit him and take him lunch and hopefully shoo him away from the move feigning an absolute need for him at home.

So I loaded Reece up in the trailer, collected the boys, and we all rode over to the Garstin home together on our bikes (Note* I have ridden my bike 4 days this week, yay me! I have a lofty goal this summer to not drive 3 days each week… meaning I will be riding my bike or walking or not going places instead so I am starting to get used to the bike and enjoying it so far).

We got to the Garstin house and saw that they had most of the furniture and belongings loaded up, they were really just trying to figure out how to load the last 20 of the 30 chairs that the Garstins’ have into the 2 semi trailers that they were loading and squish in other odds and ends too. Seriously, the Garstins had a lot of stuff. I am still amazed they had 30 chairs… and none of them were of the folding variety. Sister Garstin, who is currently living in Utah awaiting her husband, must have loved to throw big dinner parties.

While Bryan ate his lunch, the boys played in the house, in the yard, and in the cul-de-sac that the Garstin home is on. Just as I was getting myself about ready to go, I notice that Reece is up on the fifth wheel of the trailer covered in black stuff. Upon further inspection, we find that it is grease; thick black, sludgy grease. Eww. And it won’t come off with soap and water. And the more you try to get it off, the more it spreads around on him. And while I have Reece at the sink in the bathroom trying to get him clean, it gets the bathroom hideously greasy too. I am mortified. I am about to leave and cry and take my grease monkey home when I chance upon the Oxyclean left in the laundry room closet. I figure since it is safe for our clothes and no one has had a bad reaction to it, then maybe it will be safe for skin… Thus begins the hour long scouring of Reece in a strange bathroom in a home with no towels left unpacked on a chilly day in June.

See how greasy he is? This is AFTER the first time trying to clean him up. Some of the grease is already removed.

Reece, simply following his older brothers’ lead, climbed onto a trailer and got covered in grease. These are photos Ily snapped with a cell phone while in the process of trying to remove the grease. It did eventually, mostly, come off. ... See my Tabblo>

Long story made short…. Oxyclean is amazing. Reece’s clothes were covered in grease and I refused to put them in my washer to see if they would come clean and risk them getting all my other clothes greasy so I had to throw them away. Reece himself wasn’t perfectly clean after the whole scouring adventure, but pretty close. I scrubbed Reece in the sink, then stuck him in the shower to rinse while I ran over to a neighbors’ house to borrow a towel and a small t-shirt to keep him warm on the way home again. He hung out in the shower happy as can be for quite a while. Brother Garstin, the fellow moving, came in to use the restroom and wondered why the shower was on, opened the door to it, saw my naked little boy having a great time in the shower and walked out again shaking his head wondering what was going on. I returned with a towel and a t-shirt and got us ready to go home to find more appropriate attire to hang out in the rest of the day.

We rode home a bit grumpier than before, without Bryan even, and now three fewer outfits for my boys since we chose to trash their clothes too. They are the ones who instigated the whole playing in the grease thing and though their clothes were not as bad as Reece’s those clothes also were not going into my washer either. Years ago we had a whole load of whites ruined in a laundry mat because of someone who washed greasy clothes in the washer the load before us. I was not happy about that back then and would hate to have it happen again!

By the time Bryan came home, he was dead AND I was dead, AND we still had to go to the school carnival. Sigh, it was such a long day! I don’t know how we managed to make it to the end. I am so looking forward to my getaway with Bryan next week. Saturday can’t get here soon enough!

Comments

Mindy H.
June 8, 2009 at
5:23 p.m.

The stories of your boys and their mishappenings are so funny and crazy Ily, though I'm sure you were not laughing at the moment. I hope Reece potty trains soon and your boys don't find more trouble to get into. Hang in there! I'm so glad you and Brian can have a nice getaway. You deserve it!